Chapter 9 - THE PROMISE
Dad’s calendar contained a meeting.
MORGAUSE — 4:00.
Two days after the Sunday incident.
At his apartment.
No lawyer.
Then a text afterward.
Dad:
Thank you for agreeing.
Morgause:
I said I’d stop.
Dad:
And you will tell Quillon.
Morgause:
I will handle my brother myself.
Dad:
No. I will.
There.
Promise.
Stop what?
Still not stated.
Then another message to Owen.
Dad:
I spoke with her. She says it will not happen again.
Owen:
What exactly happened?
Dad:
I’m telling Quillon first.
He never got the chance.
Then Naomi found a voice-mail transcription in Dad’s phone backup.
Not audio? We can have cloud transcription with original audio. Good.
Morgause, calling Dad:
I said I was sorry. Eluned ate. Her glasses were on the refrigerator for twenty minutes. You are making this sound monstrous because Quillon has trained everyone to treat her like glass.
There.
She admitted:
Glasses taken.
Food delayed.
Then:
I will not make her do Cerys’s chores again.
There.
Then:
But Quillon needs to stop treating my house like free childcare.
That was the conflict.
Dad replied by text:
Then tell Quillon you cannot provide childcare. Do not collect the debt from Eluned.
There.
The letter’s secret was almost complete.
Then police obtained a search? No need. Morgause voluntarily produced relevant texts under protective-order discovery. Another text to her friend:
Dad is threatening to tell Quillon I make Eluned “serve” Cerys.
Friend:
Do you?
Morgause:
It’s chores.
Friend:
Whose chores?
No answer.
Then:
Morgause:
He wrote some dramatic letter for Eluned like I’m Cinderella’s stepmother.
Date:
Five days before Dad died.
There.
She knew the letter existed before death.
Then friend:
Did you take it?
No reply.
That was not proof.
But it destroyed her claim that she discovered the letter accidentally after Dad died without understanding what it was.
She knew exactly.
Tomorrow, the probate executor would open Dad’s remaining sealed notes and attorney-authorized records.
Chapter Ten would not reveal a hidden fortune.
It would answer something worse.
May you like
How long Morgause knew Dad had caught her.
And what she did to keep me from learning.
